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DUBLIN, March 22 (Reuters) - Any European Union restrictions
on vaccine exports would be a "retrograde step" that could
undermine the supply of raw materials for vaccine production,
Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said on Monday.
Martin told Ireland's RTE radio that representatives of
vaccine-maker Moderna Inc had expressed concern to him
that EU export restrictions on vaccines might affect its supply
of raw materials for vaccine production.
"I am very much against it. I think it would be a very
retrograde step," Martin said when asked if he supported
proposed export limits on COVID-19 vaccines produced in the
European Union.
"If every country and every continent started doing that, we
would be in right trouble globally and we would set it (global
vaccine production) back," Martin said.
Martin said he has spoken to senior executives with
AstraZeneca Plc, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson
and Pfizer Inc and that all had expressed
concern about the impact of an EU move on vaccine ingredient
supply chains.
"Every company are saying this to us. They are very very
worried," Martin said.
He said Moderna and Johnson & Johnson had indicated they
hoped to increase production, but that the plans would be
dependent on the availability of ingredients.
Martin called on Britain to begin talks with the EU and must
"reciprocate to some degree" in allowing AstraZeneca vaccine
doses produced in the United Kingdom to be exported to the EU.
(Reporting by Conor Humphries;
Editing by Alison Williams and Jonathan Oatis)